“All horses deserve, at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl.”~ Author Unknown

I am now doing restorations and will also do re-carves on horses to make them more realistic if asked.

I get a certain melancholy feeling restoring old horses, like I am touching someone’s hard work and talent; someone who’s possibly no longer here. It’s very humbling to run your hands over a piece of history and I want to do it gently so that I make as little imprint as possible on that persons woodwork. Below is the restoration of an Early Australian Roebuck Rocking Horse.

Early Australian Roebuck

I have restored an early 1900’s No 1 Roebuck Rocking horse for a lady who was from the local town where I live. He was gifted to her father as a very young child and after many years of play found himself in her mum’s shed.

Cheryl had been wanting restore her little guy for many years and many years ago tried to strip off some layers of house paint he had been given along his life to freshen him up.Cheryl actually did a pretty amazing job but under the paint was some damage that had been fixed primitively and needed attention.

He’s a gorgeous little horse who I had to do some researching and found out he was a genuine rare No1 Roebuck. At first I thought he was an early Bartlett but he doesn’t have the prominent chin that all of those horses have and his legs are fine with detailed fetlocks more familiar with early English Lines horses.

Cheryl wanted him to be a little more in line with my style horses but I don’t think we have compromised the work and detail of his original carver.

‘Magic Gracie’ is a Lindsay’s Super Deluxe.

I was honoured to be asked by the Berryman family in Tamworth to restore their Lindsay’s Super Deluxe, which is a Blown Molded Polyethylene horse made in Australia in the 1970’s. Wayne and his wife Mandy wanted their horse to be in remembrance of their much loved race horse ‘Magic Gracie’ who unfortunately had to be put to sleep recently. I hear that she was quite a character who would terrorize Mandy and the children, which gave her some very different names than her racing name, but we won’t mention those on here. I think she turned out beautiful and I feel so thankful they trusted me to recreate her on their rocking horse.

‘Ned’ is a 1970’s Lindsay’s Super Deluxe.

These horses were Blown Moulded Polyethylene made in Australia in the 1970’s at Lindsay’s located at 19-25 Beeson St, Leichhardt NSW. They were made to mimic the older tin or fiberglass coin operated store front horses that where very popular in the 50’s and 60’s. You don’t see many around anymore due to them being left outside to weather the harsh Australian elements. Coming across one in ‘Neds’ condition was quite a find out where I live in rural NSW.

After many years of being loved and ridden by children he sure was ready for a new lease on life, and I am looking forwards to making him all fresh again. I intend to rebuilt a stand that will be an identical replica of the one he had after his original production.

I purchased this horse from a local online market and at first I thought he was made from fiberglass. After researching his picture in Google images I found information about him. I have painted him and hope to have him finished soon and will update pictures when he is ready.

I am thinking of keeping him because I have developed a lot of love for ‘Ned’ and he can be ridden by my grandson Oliver when he comes to visit.